Many explorer-adventurer hosts of historical/cultural films viewed their subjects as "objects" (e.g. C. Ernest Cadle and Carveth Wells), their colonialist attitudes seeping precariously through the safety-film. Not so the wonderful and forgotten Les Mitchel, who arrives in the Lacandon area of the Yucatan, shows the chief Obregon K’in (of Agua Azul village, Palenque) how to fire a pistol, takes him on a plane-ride to view his ancestral ruins at Palenque. Much of this magnificent film was shot at Lacanha Chan Sayab. Viewers can find much to like about this filmmaker-adventurer, lost to history. Overly-sensitive individuals will be put-off, no doubt at Mitchel’s politically-incorrect use of cigarette-as-tool, burning the leave of a jungle plant to show its reflex to heat. At the end of the film, Mitchel delivers a heartfelt plea to save the culture from encroachment. All our attempts at finding any information on the filmmaker have failed.


This movie is part of the collection: Academic Film Archive of North America

Director: Les Mitchel
Producer: Les Mitchel
Production Company: Simmel-Meservey
Sponsor: Castellano Family Foundation
Audio/Visual: sound, color
Keywords: Lacandon; Obregon; Palenque; Les Mitchel

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 2,057 times Reviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: SpinMayaEduardo - - March 27, 2009
Subject: Amazing Documentary!
I can not believe there are videos about the Maya from the 1950´s, it was amazing to see the way Palenque looked almost 60 years ago. I went to Lacanja in 2003 and it was basically the same from what I saw on this video.

Gracias!!!

Eduardo G